When people interact and communicate in a face-to-face manner, each person naturally provides physical clues or signals that enable other people to determine the disposition, mood, reaction, emotion or other condition of the person with whom they are interacting. For example, a person can detect the disposition or emotions of another person through observation of physical gestures, eye movements, facial expressions, nervous tics, perspiration, changes in skin coloration, or other body language. People are able to both consciously and subconsciously interpret and use these signals as a gauge of the communication, and are able to adjust their interactions accordingly.
On the other hand, during a typical meeting involving a group of people, such as a conference, seminar, videoconference, etc., a speaker may not be aware of a condition of his or her audience. For example, the audience may be confused, bored, entertained, or the like, but a speaker or other participant may have little information or feedback on the actual condition of the majority of the audience. For instance, when a group of people are in a conference setting, the number of people in attendance may be too large for the others present to accurately read or interpret the current dispositions of the people at the conference. Furthermore, in a teleconference or other non-collocated situation, individuals may not share physical proximity, and may be using handheld devices, telepresence systems, or other communication devices which do not readily or easily expose the participants' reactions. The ability to ascertain the reactions or emotions of participants concurrently to the presentation of an idea is relatively straightforward or at least accessible when performed one-on-one and in person, but severe limitations occur when participants are not physically located face-to-face or if they are otherwise unable to directly observe the reactions of others. These impairments can impede natural conversation, and thereby decrease the effectiveness of communication.